the Struggle of Charlie
by R. Masen
Summary: Sixty years into the future Bella visits a dying Charlie. Better than it sounds! Rated K for reasons you'll find out. Maybe tearjerker. idk. R&R!


**i don't own twilight. if i did it would probably suck uber bad. I don't even try to compare myself to the genius Stephenie meyer! she's the bomb diggity, doggz. i just started wondering about how charlie would feel, and, before i knew it, phrases were swimming around in my head. i couldn't stop thinking about it!! here it goes- bella's point of view- sixty years later. hope u like!!**

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We were in front, but the others were close behind. I could feel them. I could smell them. The scent was sweet and it hung in the air.

I still felt anxious. I had all week. Oh well. That's what I was here for. I was probably just extra thirsty. It had been to long since we last hunted.

I could see their faces in my mind. They were the faces of my family. For sixty years they had been all I had in this world, the only ones I was ever myself with.

Carlisle.

Esme.

Alice.

Rosalie.

Emmet.

Jasper.

Edward.

A family of eternals living in the world of the mortal.

Edward grasped my hand as we ran, pulled me into a kiss as we toppled over each other. He pulled me into the grass next to him.

So many years ago, when we kissed, it had not been like this. So many years ago, I was like a delicious porcelain doll, breakable and vulnerable. Now I was strong and beautiful like him, and there was no need for his careful rules for our physical relationship. His teeth grazed my lip.

After the hunt my eyes were a mellow gold, but I was still anxious. I couldn't place why. I stared out the window of the room Edward and I shared.

Edward was suddenly behind me. He stroked my hair and murmured, "Something's wrong."

I frowned at the window.

"Please tell me what you're thinking."

"I've just been- anxious lately. I'm sure it's nothing. I just feel like something…big… is about to happen," I said as I halfheartedly pulled one corner of my mouth up.

His fingers slid down to massage the base of my neck.

"Do you want me to try to relax you?" he purred. I didn't hear. I was preoccupied with a car that had passed by. It stirred something in me. A sense of Déjà vu or something.

The car was a police cruiser. White and black, sirens flashing. I remembered something from another lifetime.

_A middle aged man sits at a table. He has dark curly hair, thinning at the top. He picks at the plate of food in front of him. He looks up from his plate and smiles. _Bella,_ he says._ I need you.

The vision disappeared and a name came into my head.

Charlie. I think I said that out loud. I became vaguely aware Edward was grasping at my face, a desperate, worried look in his eyes.

"Bella?"

"I have to see Charlie. Now."

Edward must've picked up on my panicked tone. He didn't ask questions. Neither did the rest of my family. Edward grabbed the keys off the dresser, and we drove.

I hadn't seen my father in sixty years, why the sudden urgency? I couldn't figure it out.

Sometime later, we were in Forks, Washington. The wet, green forest raced by the windows at ninety miles an hour. We pulled up at a startlingly familiar house.

It was withered and falling down. Time had not been good to it. I still looked like the day I left it. Beautiful, strong, forever eighteen.

We silently pulled on disguises, hats, sunglasses, etc. Edward knocked on the door, three quick raps. A short woman answered. She was probably a caretaker.

"We're here to see Mr. Swan," Edward said.

The house looked exactly the same, but older, and falling to pieces. The kitchen had the same yellow cabinets. I shivered. The caretaker led us up to his room and left wordlessly. Edward close behind me, I opened the door.

There was a frail, ancient man on the bed. He had barely any hair and head. His face was creased with age, and his eyes were cloudy. I faught back hysterics and looked on what was left of my father.

Edward squeezed my hand and regained his composure. "Hello, sir. We're the new caretakers."

Charli shifted and rasped, "I don't know why they keep sending you over. Why cant they just let me die?"

Edward and I were at his sides in an instant. We each took one of his wasted hands. Charlie smiled at us. It broke my heart. I could really see the Charlie there, and I knew it was no sick joke.Charlie must have felt my trembling.

"Don't be sad girl. I don't mind going. I got nothing to leave behind." He smiled again. He turned his head. He seemed to be in another world now.

"I had a daughter once. She died long ago."

I was crying silent, tearless vampire sobs now. Charlie looked at me with cataract filled eyes. They brimmed with tears. "They told me she drove off a cliff, with her husband. They were newlyweds. They were only eighteen."

I remembered. We had faked my own death to protect Charlie from the world of vampires . He had never gotten over it.

"They were eighteen and in love," Charlie continued. "I never did see anything like it, ever again. Nothing that strong. They didn't deserve to go so young. What I wouldn't give for it to have been me instead of them!" Charlie wailed. I sobbed some more. Edward was biting his lip, squeezing Charlie's hand. He looked at me with tortured eyes. Charlie was sobbing shamelessly now.

"She gave good to everyone she met. She was beautiful. She was stubborn. She was _perfect, _she was my baby girl. He loved her more than life itself. He saved her life, you know. That's how it started. She would've been smashed by a car. If only someone could've saved them in the end." His voice broke on the last word. His cheeks glistened with tears.

"If the world was _right…._" Charlie shook. "If the world was how it's supposed to be, if it was fair at all, then they would be alive. They would be happy. They would be gray haired on a porch surrounded by their family. Surrounded by their children and grandchildren! Children with his bronze messy hair or her wide brown eyes! Watching them grow! _Not rotting away in forks cemetery!_" Charlie sobbed.

I ripped off my glasses. Edward did the same. I couldn't take it. I wanted to throw up. Poor Charlie. I would tell him everything.

Charlie's eyes widened, and whispered faintly, "Angels." he smiled. "I must be dead."

I crushed my face against his hand.

"Bella. I'm coming."

And then he was gone.

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**so tell me how it was please review!! this is my first fanfic!! i cried twice when i wrote it!!**


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